Wednesday, 30 January 2013

Today and yesterday the public enquiry heard the appeal of Linden Homes against the refusal of permission for them to build on land to the north of the market town of Beverley. The government has set up a presumption in favour of new build, but Beverley, like towns all over the country, is holding out. Even the Tory-led East Riding Council can see that all this building is not good news, but the Condems are desperate to have 'growth' by any means...and they see the construction industry as the answer.

They are so wrong. As a resident and Green Party member I pointed out that flooding will increase if more land is covered in concrete, since drains already under pressure will take additional surges of run-off water, and that more suburbs do not contribute to a sense of place or to the local economy. Executive homes are not whats needed ...whats needed is every bit of green land to stay that way as we need to grow food locally in light of climate change and peak resources.

We just have to hope that the investigator can see what is going on: settlements under seige from developers egged on by an amazingly unwise and short-sighted government.